Mildly Infuriating

Also: Where is this? It’s a small world, some Lemming might pick up a cauliflower or two.

Seldom have I seen a better example of why universal basic income is so preferable to food banks.

At the food bank where my mother works, she finds pig farmers are a good source to get rid of almost gone food. While it's not solving the feeding people part, it does help with disposal. Good luck, hopefully you can pickle some of it too.

American Charity*

*Terms and conditions apply

If I were in that situation, I would try quickly whipping up some homemade posters and put them at our market square, maybe in front of schools, and in front of grocery stores. I would make sure to specify why these are given away, otherwise people might be suspicious.

That would probably illegal, but …well… who’s going to sue a food bank over hanging a few posters for 2 days?

Tomatoes, dont need any cooling, storing them in the fridge does prolongs their live but they taste like shit afterwards.

Greetings from a German Italian who cries often when people put tomatoes in fridges.

I'm one of the returns clerks in a Costco. First thing we do every morning is process stuff to send the food bank. It irks me how much stuff we aren't allowed to send because the manufacturer won't allow it. Even despite that we send a lot every day. Everything that does spoil at the food bank goes to a local pig farm, who donates pig products back to the food bank whenever he can.

I wonder if your food bank can set up some kind of relationship with farms in your region. Those farms may be open to taking lots of spoiled produce as animal feed and compost material. In exchange they might share their crops with you.

I take it the most pressing issue right now is cooling. If that is right, you might have yet another avenue to explore: Ask facilities with cooling needs if you can store one or two pallets there. I’m thinking schools, (yet again) restaurants, ice cream parlors, ice skating rinks (not sure how they work exactly – is the whole building cooled or just the rink itself?), butchers. You could ask an outdoor gear shop (I mean a place where skis and winter jackets etc. are sold) if they know of a place where one can test jackets. They might know a cool place, too.

I am working at an Amazon company's warehouse that specifically stores food items.

The amount of shit we throw in trash just because "packaging is slightly off" makes me angry and just one day of bad management spoils enough food to feed entire family.

There is no air conditioning or fridge. It's summer in Texas so if we delay a single day, half the items go bad. There are dairy products here. (And people in border of heatstroke but that's another topic.)

My workplace used to donate all its leftover food to a local meal service charity, daily. But they refused to take fresh fruits and vegetables because they just spoil too fast. It was sad because those are the foods people need the most but they are logistically very difficult to deliver, as you are witnessing.

it would be kinda cool if food panties could also pickle + can things

You might try contacting restaurants and see if they have the capacity to cook ketchup (or something else with a longer shelf life) from the tomatoes. Technically, everybody can do that. I’m thinking of restaurants because of their bigger pots.

Speaking of restaurants: They might have a food dehydrator that can process some of the cauliflower, as well.

Not being funny, but what the fuck is a homeless person going to do with a raw cauliflower?

I often see carrier bags of dry pasta, tinned tomatoes and stuff just dumped at the roadside, because the person they'd given it to has no way of doing anything with it. Apparently they're supposed to give only food they can prepare, but that clearly doesn't always happen.

Food waste is part of the system. It's fine. It's what stops a shortage from becoming a famine.

For the watermelons you might try to contact a local vintner. They may be able to process them into wine and/or liquor.

GOOD! Spending money on that is SOCIALISM! Is would MUCH Rather my Tax Dollars go into Elon Musks BANK ACCOUNT!

Second the pickling idea. Read a similar story that a food bank had a lot of excess fresh material. Thry had set up production through a commercial food processing site, had put labels on them, and were selling them online and at farmer's markets. The proceeds were going back to the food bank. Zero wastage. They were also making things like sauerkraut, kimchee, and kombucha. Watermelon can also be juiced and the rinds pickled.

I imagine for food safety and liability reasons, you wouldn't want to do it in someone's kitchen. Plus, licensing fees. But you have a great story to tell (good health, zero waste, help food bank).

Quick search since you mentioned NM: https://www.newmexicofma.org/food_processing_permits.php